Software-Defined Networking (SDN) has emerged in response to the overwhelming complexity of today’s networks and systems that have grown too large and complex to manage by traditional means. SDN logically centralises the control plane of communication networks, and abstract management and configuration from the individual packet forwarding elements. SDN is a fast-growing research and development area that has been embraced by the industry, particularly applicable to Cloud Computing and unified ICT environments that blur the boundaries between networks and computers.

SDN can be exploited to enable network programmability, flexible configuration, security, and fast service deployment. This new trend opens up a new breed of research issues for complex, programmable and adaptive systems such as formal verification of SDN-enabled networks (e.g., detecting network configuration and protocol bugs), programming languages for SDN controller applications (e.g., Frenetic and Pyretic), network resilience in adversary environments (e.g., attacks against SDN-based networks) and performance guarantees.

This SICSA SDN workshop is supported by both the NGI and CSE themes. We bring together leading academic and industrial experts to present and discuss the latest developments in the SDN area, to identify research and collaboration opportunities, and to create a momentum between researchers in Scotland with an interest in next generation networks and complex systems.

Areas of interest to CSE members include but are not limited to:

– A particular challenge in SDNs is to be able to do network design and
adaptation ‘on-line’.

– There is a large push for functional programming/languages instead of the
traditional C-family, under the belief that systems are growing too large and
too complex to be able to manage, otherwise. See as an examplehttp://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/projects/ocamllabs/

– Current participating organisations (more to be added)
TU Berlin
Cisco Systems
JANET(UK)
InMon
Lancaster University
EPCC (Edinburgh Parallel Computing Center)
University of Glasgow
Glasgow Caledonian University
University of St. Andrews
University of Stirling
University of Edinburgh
– Organizers
Dimitrios Pezaros
Myungjin Lee
Contact organisers myungjin.lee@ed.ac.uk or Dimitrios.Pezaros@glasgow.ac.uk for further details.